Subtitles

While watching The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, I started thinking about subtitles. You see, I was watching it in the original Japanese, with English subtitles. Since I can speak Japanese pretty well, I was very surprised by what I saw on the screen.

(Note: I’m not referring to this screenshot; rather, I am referring to several times during the film where the subtitles did not match the dialogue.)

When translating any language, there are often times where a direct translation sounds strange in another language. For that reason, often subtitlers will take it upon themselves to alter the language of a film to sound more colloquial to its target audience.

You may recall a controversy back when the film Let the Right One In was released on DVD in America. The subtitles were criticized as being “considerably” lacking in detail and colloquialism. You can read an article about it here:

http://iconsoffright.com/news/2009/03/let_the_wrong_subtitles_in_to.html

In each of these cases, there is substantial addition to the dialogue through the interepretation of the language by the subtitler. My goal in this post is only to make you aware. You are never watching a direct translation of a film when you are reading subtitles. You are reading dialogue that has been tailored for an American audience by a company seeking to maximize viewership.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, as colloquial dialogue can enhance a film’s subtitles. However, if this causes the film’s meaning to be lost, then a mistake has been made. In the case of Let the Right One In, this is arguably what happened. Just be conscious of what you’re watching and reading, and never let a lack of knowledge concerning foreign languages deter you from reading up on films after you’ve watched and enjoyed them.

~Nick